---

Equality Bill [HL]

I support the amendment proposed by my noble friends Lord Goodhart and Lord Lester. I shall be brief in giving one or two examples of how a lack of independence could make the organisation that we are trying to set up fairly sterile. First, an organisation such as this must not be an extension or the mouthpiece of the government. If it is going to establish any credibility whatever, it must have the confidence of the public with which it deals. It would be a tragedy if pressure were brought on the commission by the government to pursue a particular line that favours that government. Secondly, unlike previous commissions, we are now talking about a commission that also deals with human rights. There have been examples in the past. I am delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Ouseley, is in his place. I remember during his time as the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, he banged at the government’s door year after year for an investigation into the death of Stephen Lawrence, and yet that was rejected until another government came into being. That sort of approach by a government does not necessarily help to advance the cause of race relations in this country. I can give other examples where pressure has been brought on the existing commission, which again makes it fairly ineffective. During Second Reading, I cited the Commission for Racial Equality’s investigation into prison services. That was a task that the government themselves could have taken on, but instead they pressurised the commission into undertaking a massive investigation that cost a lot of money, and the end result was no more than what the prison inspectors had reported in previous years. There is another example of how powers can be abused. I remember when the Commission for Racial Equality in its early years decided to mount a formal investigation into the immigration control procedures, about which the government was not at all happy. Ultimately, it was not for the government, nor for the commission, but the matter had to go to the court, which decided that the commission had powers to mount an investigation in administration of those services. Those are tactics by which the community soon loses confidence. No government last in perpetuity. We must be careful. When I worked at the CRE, it was pretty clear that many   times the government exercised control through funding, which made its work fairly ineffective. We must understand that there may be other governments who may not necessarily be sympathetic to bodies such as this. It is right therefore that it has an independent status and is able to perform its tasks without any hindrance from the government.